Last night, as often seems to happen, Ian decided that no, actually, he wasn’t sleepy at bedtime. So I had to bring him downstairs. He managed to veg out with the television for a bit while I finished my workday, and then we played for a bit. At one point he came into my office and wanted to sit on my lap, and he was doing adorable things, so I got out my phone and interviewed him. He does pretty well at identifying parts of his body in both languages. This really surprised me the first time I tested him, months ago, in English, because his Spanish grandparents had been teaching him the parts in Spanish. I had never explicitly told him what the word “mouth” or “ear” means, but he knew.(more…)

Over the past two years, a song by an Australian group, Yolanda Be Cool, called We No Speak Americano (known colloquially as Papa Americano), has swept across Europe. Every so often a Spaniard who knows that I am both a United States citizen and a father, will think they are being clever and original by calling me “Papa Americano” and singing a bar or two of the hit song. I think it’s cute, and I enjoy the song, so I decided to make it my ringtone. Over the course of the last few months, my daughter has fallen in love with my ringtone, often reminding me out of the blue, “Poppy, your phone says papa americano!!”, adding, “Sometimes.”(more…)

Well, Nora, you keep getting more and more interesting to be around. You have no trouble whatsoever pulling yourself up to standing on almost anything, but you still lack the ability to stand up from a sitting position pushing off only the floor.

Sometimes you surprise me, like when your grocery store friend, Tona, recently asked you, “¿Dónde está la nariz?” and you pointed to your nose. I immediately asked you, “Where is your nose?” and you gestured correctly again. But you either forget things or choose not to do them. You’ve completely stopped saying your first word, Up. And your rhinolocation trick happens so rarely that seems an awful lot like chance.(more…)